Althouse: "How are you going to win people’s votes if your introduction to them is ‘all you folks want is free stuff’?"

September 25, 2015

"How are you going to win people’s votes if your introduction to them is ‘all you folks want is free stuff’?"

Said WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson, quoting something Jeb Bush did not say.

Jeb said: "[O]ur message is one of hope and aspiration. It isn’t one of division and ‘Get in line’, and ‘We’ll take care of you with free stuff’. Our message is one that is uplifting, that says: ‘You can achieve earned success … we’re on your side."

Shame on those who'd twist that.

38 comments:

Michael K said...: Oh, it's the Guardian.; 9/25/15, 6:05 PM
TRISTRAM said...: Shamne on shameless shills? Good luck with that.; 9/25/15, 6:17 PM
Hagar said...: and Eugene Robinson.; 9/25/15, 6:18 PM
bleh said...: Why the racial politics tag? Because Eugene Robinson is black and Jeb Bush is white? Because you believe Robinson's distortion is meant to fit into a meme about Republicans disliking minorities? Because you think of people who want free stuff as minorities? Because Democrats think of them that way? Because Republicans think of them that way? Are Jeb Bush's comments a racist dog whistle? Is Eugene Robinson merely attempting to make liberals think it's a racist dog whistle?; 9/25/15, 6:20 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Why the racial politics tag?"

Read the linked article and what the question asked was.; 9/25/15, 6:31 PM
campy said...: It's okay for democrats to lie to get elected, because repubs are evil.

(MSM journolistas count as democrats.); 9/25/15, 6:33 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Eugene Robinson is an idiot.; 9/25/15, 6:34 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I think this is what psychologists call "projection".; 9/25/15, 6:41 PM
YoungHegelian said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/25/15, 6:41 PM
bleh said...: Gotcha. I usually steer clear of Eugene Robinson. He rarely says anything interesting or insightful.; 9/25/15, 7:07 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Something went seriously wrong with progressive opinion writers around the turn of the millennium. I don't know if it was Clinton's impeachment or Bush v Gore, but they went off the deep end. All they seem to do these days is signal to fellow progressives that they are one of the team, and call conservatives names. They don't present arguments or try to change minds, they just pile on adjectives. It's never just the "Iraq War", it's the "disastrous Iraq War", or "Bush's illegal Iraq War", even if it is just an aside in a column that is not about Bush or the Iraq War. E. J. Dionne has become unreadable, Thomas Friedman grubs four or five acres of woodland, builds a 14,000 sq. ft house, and lectures his readers on saving the environment. Krugman is called out by other economists for cherry-picking his data or lying outright. Factcheck.org decides something is a "fact" based on things said by unnamed sourced or opinions expressed in poorly designed surveys.
Check out this David Horsey column, "Angry conservatives insist Pope Francis is a fake Christian" (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-francis-is-a-fake-20150922-story.html). The "angry conservatives" aren't politicians or conservative pundits, they are a couple of unnamed people who emailed Horsey. Horsey does not seem to understand that there are genuine Christians who dislike and even hate the Catholic church (I'm sure that there are Catholics who feel the same about Protestant denominations). Horsey seems to think Catholics are Biblical literalists, and that all conservatives are Christians. It's really quite bizarre, and is typical of the genre.; 9/25/15, 7:19 PM
bgates said...: ""How are you going to win people’s votes if your introduction to them is ‘all you folks want is free stuff’?""

Really! Everybody knows the winning message is "I'm going to give you folks all you want: Free stuff!"; 9/25/15, 7:21 PM
Michael said...: Well, "free stuff" is dog whistle for racist. Because only black people think black people are the only people who want free stuff. Robinson. Not very bright, actually.; 9/25/15, 7:29 PM
Sebastian said...: "Shame on those who'd twist that"

A little late for that.

No biggie.

14th amendment, Commerce Clause, exchanges set up by the state, Congress shall make no law, all men are created equal:

"Shame on those who'd twist that"

Yeah, right.; 9/25/15, 7:42 PM
Fritz said...: Now we know who reads Eugene Robinson.; 9/25/15, 8:14 PM
Michael K said...: It will be interesting to see if Ben Carson can reach many blacks who understand how disastrous the Great Society has been for them. I know there are some but I wonder how many.; 9/25/15, 8:27 PM
Tank said...: Robinson is one of the people too dumb too vote.; 9/25/15, 8:46 PM
Ken B said...: I don't assume he is dumb or misheard.; 9/25/15, 8:50 PM
Achilles said...: It is too bad Bush didn't say it. I will.

People who vote for Democrats do so because they want free stuff. Period.

Big Corporations support them for the graft. Lazy poor people do it for the HUD and food stamps. Baby boomers do it for the social security and medicare.

It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with what type of society you want. The democrats want Mexico. They want the corruption, laziness, and general apathy of the serfs lorded over. People that vote for them want to sit around, eat their government cheese and watch football.; 9/25/15, 9:10 PM
Big Mike said...: Gene Robinson has been the south end of horse galloping north for quite some time now.; 9/25/15, 9:14 PM
Darleen said...: You can't shame someone with no morals.

And pretty much the entire Left fits that category.; 9/25/15, 9:17 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Morning Joe has a rotating roster of black race hustlers.

Robinson is the prototypical one who has been at it for 40 years, Jonathan Capehart is the youngish whiny gay psuedo intellectual and the last one's name escapes me - he is a former Congress Critter from TN who is now making a living on Wall Street.; 9/25/15, 9:37 PM
narciso said...: Harold ford, of course it was a plant; 9/25/15, 9:52 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/25/15, 11:20 PM
Quaestor said...: Distortion is the stock in trade of the Left. Althouse rightly calls shame on them, but I'm not holding my breath. It would be illogical to assume a shaming would persuade the likes of Eugene Robinson to reform. Without the freedom to distort the record Robinson would have nothing to say.; 9/25/15, 11:20 PM
Gahrie said...: Every year, as we study slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears, the re-segregation of the government, and the internment of Japanese-Americans...I ask my high school students what they have in common. The bright ones will figure out it is that they were all done by Democrats.

Than I ask them why most minorities vote for the Democratic Party today. I get the usual "because the Republicans are racist" response, but when I ask for examples, all I get is "everyone knows".

Every once in a while I get a kid who will say "because the Democrats give us free stuff".; 9/26/15, 12:18 AM
PianoLessons said...: Ann - I am just impressed with the views of your commenters here.

Remember when Romney's comments about the 47% who will never vote for him became a huge campaign crushing meme? He inferred they were folks who vote Dem for free stuff.

Serious times for a serious discussion about the free stuff component in POTUS politics.

I've been in Milwaukee and Chicago on POTUS election days where street money was paying folks to vote for cartons of cigarettes and cash. It happens. Part of the whole process. Detroit in 2000 - an EPIC tale of bought votes (yet untold....aspiring journalists should start writing the history).

Do Republicans dish out street money on election day the way Dems do? I suspect not nearly enough.; 9/26/15, 12:45 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: "It isn’t one of division and ‘Get in line’, and ‘We’ll take care of you with free stuff’. Our message is one that is uplifting, that says: ‘You can achieve earned success … we’re on your side."

Fuck that shit. I already have the success I've earned. What I want from politicians is more free stuff.; 9/26/15, 12:45 AM
tim maguire said...: It may be the Guardian, but Robinson quotes mainstream U.S. media.

Bush gets up and says, "we can't win the black vote with promises of free stuff, but we can win the black vote with hope and opportunity" and the media responds, "Bush says black people want free stuff!"

I know a number of journalists and they are genuinely surprised, confused, and dismayed every time they are hit in the face with the fact that people hate them. And then they forget so they can be surprised, confused, and dismayed again the next time.; 9/26/15, 5:52 AM
tim maguire said...: PianoLessons, the thread isn't about whether people want free stuff, it's about the media claiming Bush said the exact opposite of what he actually said. It's one of those revealing moments that shows just how far journalists are willing to go to help the Democrats. Let's hope some Republicans notice.; 9/26/15, 5:58 AM
PB said...: Typical of Robinson these days.; 9/26/15, 7:24 AM
Rusty said...: You know your campaign is in trouble when logic challenged, and dependably socialist Eugene Robinson is giving a republican candidate political advice.
It's over, Jeb.
Buy a boat.; 9/26/15, 7:27 AM
BN said...: A lot of us just want to be left alone. Find me a politician who says that.

Hell if they'd just take a third of my money instead of about two thirds after all the federal, state, local, sales, excise, tolls, regs, tarriffs, and on and on, iI'd consider myself, well, at least not gang raped. That would be great. Talk about "rape culture." geeze!!!!; 9/26/15, 2:45 PM
BN said...: Did I mention property taxes? Sheeeet! Don't get me started.; 9/26/15, 2:50 PM
BN said...: Oh and death taxes!!! Coming and going!!!; 9/26/15, 2:51 PM
cubanbob said...: If you are going to do the time might as well do the crime. The Republicans ought to campaign of severely curtailing the welfare state and privatizing social security for the young among other measures.; 9/26/15, 4:01 PM
Bilwick said...: Whereas at an Bernie Sanders rally, he says, "All you folks want is free stuff? Well, ALLRIGHT!!!"; 9/26/15, 4:12 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Hell if they'd just take a third of my money instead of about two thirds after all the federal, state, local, sales, excise, tolls, regs, tarriffs, and on and on, iI'd consider myself, well, at least not gang raped. That would be great. Talk about "rape culture." geeze!!!!

You are full of shit. The average overall tax burden in the U.S. is somewhere between 25 and 32%, depending on how you count it. What makes you so special, or incompetent in handling your money, that you are paying more than double your fair share?; 9/27/15, 11:01 AM